NEW DELHI: Setting the ball rolling for its programme to develop 44 economic corridors for faster movement of freight, government has invited bids for preparations of detailed project reports for 15,000 km of such corridors under the first phase.

The government plans to develop 35,000 km of highways under the Economic Corridor project which is estimated to cost Rs 3 lakh crore.

“Consultants are being tasked to carry out critical examination of existing logistic infrastructure … and 44 freight corridors (Economic Corridors), Inter corridors and feeder routes to reduce cost and time of freight movement,” Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

Under ‘Logistic Efficiency Enhancement Programme’, these are proposed to be developed by taking an end-to-end corridor view, rather than stretch-by-stretch road construction view to ensure consistent infrastructure along the corridor, as per discussion between NHAI and government.

“As a first step towards this task, preparation of DPRs is being undertaken by NHAI. In the first phase, DPRs of identified 15000 km is proposed to be prepared” for which NHAI has invited bids, it said.”Bids have been invited in 45 packages of about 300 Km length each,” the statement said.